Hugo's Bedtime Story
by RodentFace
Summary: Hermione is stressed out because of work and Rose is reading Hugo a bedtime story.  Warning: Oh, so much fluff!


Frantically, Hermione Weasley sorted through varies reports and papers that had been spread across her kitchen table. As usual, she had far too much work to do and was stressing herself out. "Okay, the manager's report, Carlton's report, page one... page two... page four... page five... page six...wait! Where's page three!"

Hermione went through her briefcase, all the papers in her hand, and all of the papers left on the table to find page three, but still couldn't find it. She had started to panic, when her husband, Ron, asked in a sleepy yet long-suffering voice, "What's wrong?"

"I can't find page three!" Hermione whispered frantically. She was careful to keep her voice down so not to wake up Rose or Hugo.

Ron sighed and snaked an arm around her and picked a paper from the assorted ones on the kitchen table. "Is this it?" he asked handing it to her.

"Yes, thank you!" she said taking it and paper-clipping it to the other papers in that report. She was about to sort through more of the papers when Ron snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"You're stressing yourself out too much," he stated gently.

"What do you suggest I do?" she asked impatiently. "Quit my job?"

"No, I just don't think you should be taking on so much work. Did you just say that that was the manager's report?"

"Well, yes, but he told me to do it, because he couldn't..."

Ron cut her of. "Because he didn't want to." He picked up another report. "Did you say that this was Carlton's report?"

"Yes, but it's due tomorrow and he hadn't even started on it..."

"So you did it for him?"

"It's a very important report. If it wasn't finished, it would make our entire department look bad."

"Carlton? Isn't that the idiot that you said never does his work?" he asked shrewdly.

"Yes. But he's the manager's nephew so he gets paid better than everyone else anyway."

"Why are you doing everyone else's work, Hermione? It just stresses you out," Ron pulled her even closer.

"If I don't do it, no one will," she said still sounding stressed.

"You knew that Harry and I were never going to do our homework. You usually didn't do it for us anyway," he grinned at her.

"I didn't actually do it for you, but I still 'checked it' for you," she snapped. "And anyway, if you two got bad grades, it wouldn't make me look bad. If these reports aren't turned in by tomorrow, everyone in my department will look bad."

"Then why doesn't anyone else volunteer? You aren't actually the only one who cares about your job, are you?"

"No, but I've been trying to get this promotion..."

"Hermione, you've been trying to get this promotion for years. If you haven't gotten it yet, you should know by know that your boss is an idiot to not realize that you deserve it more than your stupid manager."

Hermione was about to snap back, but her lips were suddenly busy doing something much better.

XXX

"'The wizard could not sleep or eat with the pot beside him,'" Rose Weasley read to her little brother. There were nights when, after reading him a story from The Tales of Beedle the Bard or a chapter of another book, their parents simply refused to read Hugo anymore of the bedtime story and said it was time for him to go to sleep and that they would read him some more the next morning. On these nights, Rose would sneak into her brother's room and read to him. Even though she was only five, Rose was an exceptional reader. She could read almost every reading material that she was faced with.

Tonight, she was reading him The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, his favorite. She was about half-way through it, when she heard raised voices. She assumed that her parents were going to start a fight, in which case, she ought to close the door so they wouldn't wake up Hugo, but silence followed. After peering down at Hugo to see if he was asleep yet, Rose grabbed her teddy bear (it had once belonged to her father) and ran into the dining room to investigate.

She stood in the doorway between her mother and father standing in the kitchen with their arms around each other and their lips glued to each other's. She smiled and squeezed her teddy bear tighter.

After a while, Hugo, who was not completely asleep, became aware that his sister was no longer reading him his favorite story, got out of bed to see where she'd disappeared.

He found her standing in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room smiling and hugging her teddy bear. "What are you doing?" he whispered.

"Look," she whispered in reply and pointed up at their parents who still had not noticed her.

"_Yuck!_" was all he had to say.

"Isn't it so sweet?" she asked oblivious to the fact that he was a three-year-old little boy.

Hugo frowned then, satisfied with where his sister was, waddled sleepily back to bed.

Rose didn't know how long she just stood there, watching her parents before going to bed herself. Though, it wasn't nearly as long as her parents stayed there.


End file.
